what is difference between target language version and toolchain version? Does it mean toolchain set will ignore my global jdk and use the version from toolchain?

Unclear what “global jdk” means - there’s the JDK that Gradle itself is running with, and zero or more toolchain JDKs used for tasks. When using a toolchain it uses that specified version/vendor, ignoring the JDK that Gradle itself is using.

Thanks

Never use target version. If you want to compile with a newer JDK but target an older JDK, use the newer JDK as toolchain and set the

release

to the older JDK, or you easily end up with code compiled against change API that cannot run on the intended target version. But to answer the question, toolchain is the JDK that is used, target version is, what is given to

-target

That was my question

If you use a new jdk and -target but no bootstrap classpath you compile against the API of the new jdk

I personally don’t use tool chains, preferring to use the ‘release’ setting. Good write up here: https://jakewharton.com/gradle-toolchains-are-rarely-a-good-idea/. Others may prefer to compile with tool chains.

If you use

--release

you also compile against the old API, in addition to what

-target

alone would have done

Thanks, I thought that target is not only bytecode but also API availability check

So either is a toolchain of your target version and be done, it if you insist on using a newer toolchain, use

release

, not *Compatibility

I saw the Jake's article yesterday

And I almost fully disagree with him :-)